What Qualifies As A Cold Streak For You?

[SlipFits]

Hey,

Cards don't seem to be going my way, only in the short term though. I have won approz. 5% of my last 350 hands, no hands have been holding up.

I say this is a cold streak for me, I wonder what you guys look at to see if the card gods don't like you.

[CarlNiclas]

Well, winning 5% of all hands isn't horrendous by any measure, unless you mean 5% of all hands you actually put money into. Then you have it bad...

Consider for example that you play 20% of all hands. Then compare that percentage to the percentage of hands you actually win. Ie in this example one quarter of all hands you play turn out to be wins for you (5 out 20), which is not bad at all.

[dylhead]

The other day I had some crazy statistics for a 250 hand session. I think I was seeing 15% of flops and only winning 4% of those pots I entered. I think I was winning 1% of all total hands. Normal statisitics for me are more like seeing 18-25% of flops winning at least 20-30% of the ones I enter and winning about 6% of all pots. I really think that you need to look at the factors involved in your cold streak though. Typically when I am on a cold streak I am

1. Not getting as many premium hands
2. Getting outdrawn

Make sure that you're losing in this way and not folding the best hand too often(it happens occasionally to good players) or playing too many pots.

[scotnt73]

3 or more losing days in a row will make me start wondering about my game usually

[umdpoker]

holy sweet jesus. this is not a cold streak. that is a burp considered to how bad it can be. i think when you hit 100 bb loss, you start worrying. and after a couple days of running bad. i can't even imagine what poker pros in vegas feel like when they can't get anything for 3000 hands. thats a lot of sitting at one table watching morons catch cards.

[davidross]

I tend to describe cold srtreaks in 2 different ways. THe times you just lose money no matter how many hands you win, and the times where you just can't win a pot. THey are not necessarily the same. Quite often the times you can't win a pot, and winning only 5% of the hands played is very low as far as I'm concerned, doesn't actually cost you all that much money. Most of my big losses come on nights where I still win a good percentage of pots, but I win all the small ones and lose the big ones.

But 350 hands is way too small to even consider. I just finished 4 losing weeks, which for me corresponds to 48,000 hands. It's not unusual to lose 200 BB's, it's happened to me 3 times this year. GIve it some time and then reevaluate.

[calig]

[ QUOTE ]
I tend to describe cold srtreaks in 2 different ways. THe times you just lose money no matter how many hands you win, and the times where you just can't win a pot. THey are not necessarily the same. Quite often the times you can't win a pot, and winning only 5% of the hands played is very low as far as I'm concerned, doesn't actually cost you all that much money. Most of my big losses come on nights where I still win a good percentage of pots, but I win all the small ones and lose the big ones.

But 350 hands is way too small to even consider. I just finished 4 losing weeks, which for me corresponds to 48,000 hands. It's not unusual to lose 200 BB's, it's happened to me 3 times this year. GIve it some time and then reevaluate.

[/ QUOTE ]

48000 hands/80 hands per hr = 600 hrs
600 hrs/4 weeks = 150 hrs per week
150 hrs/7days = 21.4 hrs day playing poker

When do you sleep?

[Robk]

He probably plays 200+ hands/ hr if it's shorthanded.

[OrangeHeat]

Way too short term to even consider.

My defintion of a cold streak is playing even or a loss after three weeks - this translates into about 6500 hands online three tables at a time 2 hours a nite. This roughly correlates to five weeks in a B&M @ 30 hands an hour 8 hours a day five days a week.

I just came off one of these - it wasn't terrible I just played even for the whole time. There have been 100BB streaks in the past though.

Just goes to show the psychological strength you need to do this for a living at B&M....If you can't handle three weeks online playing 2 hours each one - imagine playing 8 hours a day for five weeks and making zippo or being down!!

Orange

I'm gonna cross post this last thought on Psych forum if interested in that discussion.

[davidross]

Playing 4 tables I see 320 hands/hr, for 8 hrs a day Mon-Fri. I do manage some sleep. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]